From Hazlitt, written in 1978. Sounded to me like it was written today:
In nearly every country in the world today the outlook is for
continued inflation. The arguments of the sound money champions
and limited-government advocates have proved futile against the
sophistries of the inflationists and the vested interests of the poli-
ticians. The politicians have concluded that they can continue to
hold office only as long as they spend more than they tax, as long
as they redistribute income, as long as they “soak the rich,” as long
as they hand out subsidies to a score of pressure groups under the
plea of “relieving poverty” and showing “compassion.”
For years thoughtful and responsible men have hoped that, when
the situation in a given country got bad enough, the inflating
“welfare” government would be turned out, or would itself reverse
its policies. But the expected time of realizing this hope keeps re-
ceding into a more distant future. Where, in this country or that,
the inflating socialist government has at last been thrown out, the
“conservatives” elected in their place have feared to make any but
trivial changes. Millions of people have got used to their food
subsidies, or their controlled rents, or their high and prolonged
unemployment insurance, or their government-provided jobs, or
their escalating “social security” benefits. They have come to ac-
cept all these subsidies as rights. The existing government fears
that any attempt to remove or reduce them will set off riots. The
attitude of the politicians in power becomes increasingly one of
“Apres nous, le deluge.”
“‘We’ve all lived the nightmare,’ writes Jon Evans. ‘A new developer shows up at work, and you try to be welcoming, but he can’t seem to get up to speed; the questions he asks reveal basic ignorance; and his work, when it finally emerges, is so kludgey that it ultimately must be rewritten from scratch by more competent people.’ Evans takes a stab at explaining why the new guy can’t code when his interviewers and HR swear that they only hire above-average/A-level/top-1% people. Evans fingers the technical interview as the culprit, saying the skills required to pass today’s industry-standard software interview are not those required to be a good software developer. Instead, Evans suggests: 'Don’t interview anyone who hasn’t accomplished anything. Ever. Certificates and degrees are not accomplishments; I mean real-world projects with real-world users. There is no excuse for software developers who don’t have a site, app, or service they can point to and say, ‘I did this, all by myself!’ in a world where Google App Engine and Amazon Web Services have free service tiers, and it costs all of $25 to register as an Android developer and publish an app on the Android Market.”
We should be taking notes off of Penn Jillette, as for what we can do as libertarians. Let’s see: media icon for many reasons, tv show promoting views, personal little videos.
“Subpoenas are expected to go out to ISPs this week in what could be the biggest BitTorrent downloading case in US history. At least 23,000 file sharers are being targeted by the US Copyright Group for downloading The Expendables. The Copyright Group appears to have adopted Righthaven’s strategy in blanket-suing large numbers of defendants and offering an option to quickly settle online for a moderate payment. The IP addresses of defendants have allegedly been collected by paid snoops capturing lists of all peers who were downloading or seeding Sylvester Stallone’s flick last year. I am curious to see how this will tie into the BitTorrent case ruling made earlier this month indicating that an IP address does not uniquely identify the person behind it.”
The “White Panther” Statement of the “White Panthers” of the 60’s, is very facepalm heavy with beliefs in post scarcity and other contradictory typical marxist premises, taken from Wikipedia. My favorite is number 3:
In November 1968, Fifth Estate published the “White Panther State/meant”. This manifesto, emulating the Black Panthers, ended with a ten-point program:
Full endorsement and support of the Black Panther Party’s 10-point program and platform.
Total assault on the culture by any means necessary, including rock and roll, dope, and fucking in the streets.
Free exchange of energy and materials—we demand the end of money!
Free food, clothes, housing, dope, music, bodies, medical care—everything free for every body!
Free access to information media—free the technology from the greed creeps!
Free time & space for all humans—dissolve all unnatural boundaries!
Free all schools and all structures from corporate rule—turn the buildings over to the people at once!
Free all prisoners everywhere—they are our comrades!
Free all soldiers at once—no more conscripted armies!
Free the people from their phony “leaders”—everyone must be a leader—freedom means free every one! All Power to the People
